novels, comets, movies
Some thirty-three years ago, the Voyager 1 spacecraft attempted to photograph all of the known planets in our solar system in a single "family portrait." But it couldn't see all of them. Some planets were too small, or too close to the Sun. The Earth, as is now well-known, turned up as a mere smudge … Continue reading Satan’s Pale Blue Dot
As an amateur astronomer, I took special pleasure in all the astronomical imagery in Milton's "Paradise Lost". Milton depicts Satan exploring the vastness and boundaries of three immense worlds: Hell, Chaos, and the created universe that contains our Earth. At one point he has Satan landing on the surface on the Sun, which is such … Continue reading Satan in Milton’s telescope